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Monday, July 14, 2008

Power3 Reports on NuroPro® Study

[Source: The Woodlands Online.com] - Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTCBB:PWRM), a leading proteomics company specializing in the development and commercialization of diagnostic tests for early detection of breast cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, is providing an interim status report of its international validation study of the company’s NuroPro® blood serum biomarker test for Parkinson’s disease.

To date, Power3 has analyzed 73 patient samples for the international validation study provided by the University of Thessaly School of Medicine, in Greece, to confirm previous clinical validation studies completed in the United States. The previous study from a US patient population demonstrated that the blood serum protein biomarkers used in the NuroPro® diagnostic test have the ability to consistently distinguish between Parkinson’s disease patients and normal control subjects.

The samples from the University of Thessaly have demonstrated that changes in the blood serum concentration of the protein biomarkers were consistent with previous Power3 results obtained from US Parkinson’s disease patients. As part of the current validation study, Power3 has standardized its methods for collection, storage, shipping, processing, and biostatistical analysis. This study confirms Power3’s ability to reproduce its Parkinson’s disease diagnostic-test results with superior sensitivity and specificity in the 95% range. Power3 expects to strengthen the validation study with samples from over 100 Greek patients by September 2008.

Power3 is also conducting an additional 300-patient clinical validation study of its NuroPro® blood serum test for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease in collaboration with Dr. Marwan Sabbagh, the Director of Clinical Research at the Cleo Roberts Center of Clinical Research at the Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Arizona.

“The potential of the Power3 study cannot be understated. Patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease will benefit by having earlier diagnosis and treatments resulting in an overall better outcome,” says Sabbagh. To date, 69 patient samples have been analyzed. Power3 expects to provide an interim report on this study in July 2008 and complete this validation study in September 2008.

Katerina Markopoulou, Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Thessaly, commented: “The available data regarding the sensitivity and specificity of the protein biomarkers identified by Power3 for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease are very promising. The validation of these findings in larger patient cohorts of different ethnic backgrounds will provide additional important information regarding NuroPro’s® applicability in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.”

Steven B. Rash, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “This study provides further support we are rapidly approaching the stage to commercializing the first ever blood serum proteomic tests for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. These encouraging Parkinson’s tests results and the numerous validation studies that are currently underway for Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and similar neurological disorders, confirm our commitment to bringing these tests to market in late 2008 or early 2009. We believe this test will be a major advance for patients and physicians, as it will offer a means to detect neurodegenerative diseases at their earliest stages without a painful and complicated spinal tap procedure.”